Norman Coombes
COOMBES, Norman (1922-2004) Actor, dramatist and director. ****
Contents
Biography
He died in Johannesburg in May 2004, aged 82.
Training
Career
Contribution to SA theatre, film, media and/or performance
********* Author of A Snake in the Garden, which he directed for?* Pieter Toerien Productions?* in 1988. Winner of the Fleur du Cap Award for Best New Indigenous Script (1988).
The Bed Sitting Room, Cause Célèbre, Annie, The Nuns (producer & Director, A Shadow of Heroes, L’amant Anglaise, Journey's End. Directed In This Court, Rapid Eye Movements
Acted in Alice's Adventures Underground, Send for Dolly, Cape Charade or Kaatjie Kekkelbek, The Chalk Garden, Equus, The Crucible, Charley's Aunt, In the Case of J. Robert Oppenheimer, The Lady's not for Burning, Shadowlands, We All Fall Down, The Seven Ages, Cat on a Hot Tin Roof, The Cavern, Shakespeare's Macbeth, Yelena, Murder Among Friends, The Unexpected Guest, Savages, Thark, King John, Much Ado about Nothing, Child's Play, Magnolia Tree.
Directed Blitzbreeker and the Chicken from Hell (1990), Journey's End (1977), As Long As They’re Happy (1955), Doctor Faustus (1972), Animal Farm, Child's Play, Marching Song, The Nuns, Journey's End. He directed The Nuns, Investigations into the Death of a Greek, Journey's End, for PACT at the Market Theatre in February 1977 starring himself, Dale Cutts, Frantz Dobrowsky, Richard Haines, Michael McCabe, John Rogers. He directed the PACT production of Jerome Lawrence and Robert E. Lee's The Night Thoreau Spent in Jail starring Neil McCarthy at the Alexander Theatre in February 1984.
Produced The Lark and the Crow, 1979
Wrote Episodes in Light and Dark for which he received the Amstel Playwright of the Year Award in 1993; A Hill Above Camdeboo; A Snake in the Garden (winner of several awards), Ten Unexpected Spiders, Trial of Bessiewallis.
He appeared in the films Never Say Die and The Mangler and the 1974 Roger Moore film, Gold.
Awards, etc
Sources
SACD 1973; 1974; Tucker 1997. Star, 17 May 2004.
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